"What is your name". The cold-hearted-like woman who sat across them asked.
"Me?" Zora blurted and the woman glared up at her. "Zora". She replied casually.
"No manners". She sneered and picked up her cane, hitting it on Zora's head.
Zora immediately got pissed and wanted to fight back but krysia secretly held her hand and gave her a calm look.
"I can see you lack manners and it'll be very hard for you to stay here". She continued as Zora kept rubbing her throbbing head angrily.
"No ma'am. She's just like that sometimes. Please forgive her". Krysia begged making the woman look up at her.
"What is your name?"
"It's krysia ma'am. Krysia Naraigh." She replied, her gaze on the floor.
"What about you". She eyed Zora who gazed into her eyes. "You should focus on the floor while talking to anyone in this royal residence".
Understanding what she was talking about, she settled her gaze on her shoes. "Zora Fletcher".
"Good". She wrote down some words in a paper before looking up at them again. "You said the prince told you to start working here as from today".
"Yes". Krysia answered.
After she was done writing, she folded the paper neatly and put it on the table. She stood up with her cane and studied them for a while.
"You.." she pointed her cane at krysia. "You'll work for the second prince".
"Yes ma'am".
"And you... You should work for the first prince". Zora's head swept up and this time, she couldn't hold in her protest.
"Why should I work for the first prince? The second prince brought us here right. We should work for.....". The cane landed on her head again. "Damnit woman!" It came on her head again.
"Shut up! You should be happy because I'm doing you a favor! With your manners, do you think you can work for the second prince? You'll get a death sentence even before you start working". She said and went back to her seat. "Just do as I say". She stood up again. "Follow me". He led them outside the small room to the kitchen.
"Krysia. You'll replace myki. You'll be the one responsible for the second prince tea. Other works ordered by the second prince can be done afterwards."
"Okay ma'am". She said and made a quick secret bye to pissed Zora.
"Get that look off your face. We're going to the first prince Chamber". She ordered without looking back and started walking out. Zora shut her eyes and heaved a sigh before following her. She barely started working and she found everywhere disgusting already. The fact that she was going to start working for the first prince instead of gyenk annoyed her to her bones. How would she get her revenge on Gyenk when she would be working for the first prince. How would she put sleeping pills and torture him in his dreams?
"Tell the prince the Head maid is here". She told one of the men at the door. He went inside and came out immediately, opening the door for them.
The head maid glance at Zora behind her and went inside. Zora followed.
"Who do you have with you?" The prince whose legs were lying on the table doing nothing as he let a lady rub his chest and massage him sexually.
"She's a new maid. She was brought here by the second prince to work in exchange for her execution". The head maid said and the prince suddenly frowned as he dropped his legs.
"You mean.. Corinne pardoned her?"
"Yes Your Highness".
He stood up from his seat and walked to Zora slowly. "Who are you?" He narrowed his eyes curiously.
"I'm Zora Daustra...er Zora Fletcher". She almost forgot she was supposed to lie.
The prince smiled and slowly slowly, it turned into a laughter. "Is my lovely brother becoming softhearted..... it's unlike him". He stood in front of Zora and lifted her head up. "Or is there something I don't know".
She laughed nervously. "No no...why the hell would I anything to do with gye...." She trailed off slowly and stopped laughing when she felt the head maid's glare burning a hole on her face. The prince looked surprised. A maid had never dared look straight into his eyes and talk casually. He was amused and impressed.
"I can see". He left her chin and went back to his position.
"I sincerely apologise for her manners. I'll make sure she gets punished". The head maid went on her knees and begged. Zora followed suits and just stared at the floor, not saying anything.
He ordered them to leave but before they could get to the door, he said; "You know where to put her don't you?"
"Yes Your Highness". The maid turned and bowed and went out with Zora. After they were out of the Chamber, the head maid grabbed her ear and twisted it.
"Ha! That hurts that hurts!" She screamed as the head maid pulled her with her ear to the small room they were interviewed earlier.
"When will you learn!" She hit the cane on her continually. "Tell me!"
"Ha! It hurts!" She whimpered as she went down on her knees slowly.
The maid stopped and sat down. "It's a relief I didn't take you to the second prince". She sighed and poured herself a cup of water.
"Why? Is he that cruel?" She asked while still rubbing her head. The maid gave her a look and stood up. She went to a corner and brought out a sack and dropped it in front of Zora.
"Pour it". She ordered.
Zora took one look at it and glanced up at her. "Why shou....". Another bang came on her head again. "Ah...my skull is going to pop out if you continue doing that".
"At least we'll be able to put some senses into it. Now pour it!"
Zora took the sack and poured the rice on the floor.
"I know how many grains are there. Count it and if you don't tell me the exact number or anything close to it. You'll count it again and again till you get it". And before Zora could protest, the woman slammed the door behind her and locked it.
"What the hell is all this?!" She screamed frustratedly. It was barely half of the day and she already got into trouble. And what? She had to count thousands of grains that looked impossible.
She calmed herself and heaved a sigh. "This is going to take almost all the day but you won't give up. You promised krysia didn't you?" She told herself slowly as she began with her endless mission.
***
"Five thousand, two hundred and fifty eight grains of rice". She told the head maid sleepily. It was getting dark slowly and she was tired from counting stupid grains. She almost dozed off while counting it the second time. Sure, the maid had told her to count it again when she got the wrong answer.
"Wrong". Her voice rang loudly in Zora's ears, making her jerk out of her sleeping mode completely.
"Don't tell me I'm counting it again cause I'm definitely not". She declared, absolutely meaning it this time.
"But you're close to the answer". She completed.
"So what's the answer?" She wanted to know. She was definitely sure she was careful while counting them.
"Do you want to know?"
She nodded.
"Then try counting it again till I tell you you're correct".
"No never mind. I don't want to know". She declined.
"I think you'll know very soon because there is no way you're not coming back to count those grains if you're not conscious of whatever you say". She told her sternly and walked out of the room. Zora quickly stood up and went to the kitchen to see krysia.
"How is your first day?" Krysia asked immediately she spotted her tired face.
"Worse, terrible, bad, awful, disgusting, hateful, stressful, annoying...dumb.....is there anything else I can use?" She spoke out irritatedly, ignoring the stares the other maids gave her.
"Well if you ask me....It's been pretty good". She shrugged.
"Well that's because you didn't get to count grains of rice and your pretty head wasn't messed with." She mocked and krysia laughed. Krysia brought out a jug and water and put them down, staring at it without doing anything with them.
"What is it? Why that look on your pretty face".
"Tell me, who drinks extremely hot tea at night before sleeping?" She faced Zora completely with one hand on her waist, an eyebrow up. With her look, you could tell she was annoyed but just good at keeping it.
Zora shrugged and wanted to mock her look but abruptly stopped when a thought crawled into her mind. "Did gyenk tell you to bring him hot tea?"
"Of course". She sighed and resumed to staring at the jug. She was used to hearing Zora call the second prince gyenk. She couldn't get the name of her mouth.
"Then make him one and probably poison him if you can". She joked.
"This isn't funny. Do you want my head off my neck?"
"Did he tell you that?"
"No. Just saying. I heard he's very dangerous than we think he is."
"Dangerous my foot". She eyed off, returning back to the previous topic. "Then why aren't you making the tea?"
"Because I don't know the kind of tea he wants". She said worriedly.
"Why don't you ask myki or whatever she was called earlier. She was the one serving him before right?"
"You think I haven't tried? She won't tell me. She is annoyed because she was replaced and told to start washing the plates. The hardest work ever." She'd have giggled but the current situation didn't let her.
"You said it's for gyenk right?"
"Hmm".
"Then I guess I might know what he likes". Zora said. She remembered when gyenk first came to her house to manipulate her thoughts. She remembered he asked for Longjing, a green tea from Zhejiang. He said it was the tea he loved most.
Even if the second prince was gyenk or not, as long as their faces were the same then their tastes wouldn't differ, would they?
"Where are the tea leaves?"
.